In an increasingly security-conscious world, protecting access to information and/or to systems from unwanted discovery and/or corruption is a major issue for both consumers and businesses.
The growth of system connectivity has been one of the major developments in recent years. Fewer and fewer systems are operating as stand-alone boxes, and most of today's systems are increasingly becoming elements of complex networks. This growth in networking allows improved performance and increased flexibility. However, with this growth in system distribution, system security, and protection against unwanted access and/or corruption, has become a major concern for systems owners and/or operators. Many consumers and systems owners and/or operators may be vulnerable to unwanted access when the level of security provided within the system is insufficient for providing the appropriate protection. In that regard, many deployed systems, may incorporate the use of architectures that enable and improve security management in order to provide the necessary protection from unwanted access.
Many systems have dedicated security sub-systems, which in addition to monitoring the system security throughout its operations, may also function to ensure that the systems are initially loaded securely. These systems may also comprise processing units, which may be required to perform general processing functions including, but is not limited to, loading code and/or data, performing code validation, executing code instructions, and performing memory manipulations. If the system is to be loaded securely, such processing unit need to be assured that it is executing clean code. However, assuring the security of the system may require use of the processing unit because certain aspects of security procedures may entail use of general processing functions, for example, code loading and validation. Therefore, the system in general, and the processing unit in particular, may be exposed to potential security threats and breaches while the system security is being assured.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with some aspects of the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.